Cortland 'Battle-Tested' By Non-Conference Tilts

Followers of Division III lacrosse in upstate New York had to be scratching their heads when they looked at an out-of-conference weekend scheduled by Cortland and Nazareth. Cortland, from the SUNYAC, and Nazareth, from the Empire 8, decided to travel to Baltimore on March 21-22 to face top-10 teams Stevenson and Lynchburg on consecutive days.

Each lost both times, although the games were close. And even though Cortland traveled without its best player, All-America midfielder Joe Slavik; had suffered several other significant injuries; and had a roster that overall was already lacking in significant game experience veteran Red Dragons coach Steve Beville has no regrets about taking on such a daunting challenge.

“It is absolutely worth it,” Beville said before Cortland's 12-9 win vs. Nazareth on Wednesday. “We’ve always done it and always will. We absolutely want to play as many top teams in the regular season as possible. It goes such a long way to defining who you are as a team. That experience is critical come playoff time. And then the other factor is your strength of schedule when it comes to seeding for the tournament. The teams with the better strength of schedule get rewarded.”

Beville believes those factors override concerns about receiving home-field advantage deep into the NCAA Tournament should the team (11-3 overall and 4-0 in the SUNYAC) continue to rule the conference as it has done for several years now.

“It’s worth it,” he reiterated. “We’ll never regret it. We’ve taken it on the chin some this season, but it has made us a better team. And that’s the way it is. When we recruit we tell prospects they’re going to play the best, and we mean it and they know it. The best players want to play the best.”

And they want to play for the best. Cortland has been among that crowd for several years now — Rich Barnes led the team to a national championship in 2006, his only season as head coach, and Beville is 136-21 (.866) with a national title in the seven-plus seasons since — but this season has been a challenge.

Two players tabbed as starters in the preseason were suspended for off-the-field issues. The brutal Central New York winter retarded the growth of inexperienced replacements. Injuries shelved several key contributors, chief among them Slavik, who went down with an upper-body problem during an 18-11 loss to No. 1 RIT and just returned from a five-game absence.

“It has been an interesting season,” Beville said. “But I think those issues and the losses made us harder, tougher. We’re starting to get closer. You can feel it around the team.”

The return of Slavik, a senior captain who is on the verge of becoming the school’s career scoring leading among midfielders, is part of the reason.

“We’re a much more dangerous offense with him in the lineup,” Beville said. “I guess the good thing to come out of all the injuries we’ve had is we’ve built a lot of depth in the interim. Now that those players are starting to trickle back we’re a lot deeper.”

And, thanks to an out-of-conference slate that is as tough as they come, a lot more “battle-tested,” to borrow Beville’s description. There is still plenty of work ahead — two SUNYAC contests and the conference tournament remain — but Beville believes the OOC experience has equipped his team to prevail.